ABSTRACT
Nothing dominates business coverage in mass communication like Wall Street. During the day, viewers of CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV are bombarded with live reports from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, along with a rolling tape of stock prices on the bottom of the screen. Many investors who entered Wall Street in the late 1980s and rode the spectacular gains throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s came to expect double-digit gains in their stock portfolios every year. A business reporter asked to write a story about the stock market's performance during a day, week, month, quarter or year will want to look at the factors that caused stocks to rise or fall. Bonds and stocks are alike in a fundamental manner: They are both sold by large Wall Street firms known as brokerage houses or investment banks.
